The root of what we see all around us today as the world spins further out into decadence, and professing Christendom seems bent to follow it, is found in the Book of Romans:

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law;indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not havethe Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.(Romans 8: 5-10)

Let’s look at the first part of verse 5 again — For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Could there be a more fitting statement to describe what America has become? The King James Versionof the Bible reads — they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Sadly, America is not alone in becoming an arrogant, self-centered people enslaved by their own corruption, greed, and sexual immorality.

Oh, and the people outside the professing Christian community are even worse! Now we may smile, but there is much more truth to this statement than we’d like to admit. But what you think about, and what you desire in your heart, will tell you a lot about your — self. And today we still use the word “heart” in the same context as the Bible does, in that when we say — “I believe this with all my heart” we mean: I believe this way down deep inside myself.

Many times the Scriptures will use the word heart to refer to the inner man—what we would also call our soul and/or our spirit. Basically this is the reasoning process that sets us apart from the animal kingdom. Which if you think about it, is yet another reason to reject the empty theory of evolution. Secular scientists may try and convince us that we are simply the end result of life that began in a slimy pond of algae billions of years ago; but since we have the mind of Christ we need only to take a moment here and think this through.

The key issue is: If the big bang theory were true, then life would have had to begin from non-life at some point. You see how that would work? Inanimate or non-living chemicals, i.e. “dead” stuff to be blunt, would have had to begin living somehow. But let’s not miss the real point: Ifthere’s no God to design the “heart” of man—the inner reasoning process—then where else could it have come from? Science simply has no adequate explanation as to why man has this conscious inner sense of reasoning that we commonly refer to as the heart.

Of course, we who are Christians—we who are theists—know that God designed man with a soul/spirit because God Himself is Spirit. And as I have just pointed out, science just does not have any natural explanations for why we have emotions—why we love—or why man even has a conscience in the first place. But the fact remains that man is a cognizant ego. This simply means that we are cognizant, or “mindful/aware,” of our ego—the Greek from which we get our word “I” as in myself.

You and I are each aware of our own personalities. To put this more simply, we all recognize that we are not each other. And it is an over-emphasis about the awareness of self that is actually at the root of our dilemma of sin. Our sinful human nature, housed within our body—the flesh—all wrapped up together with our heart is what we are powerless to harness on our own; it’s what leads us to rebel against our loving Creator.

The Bible tells us — The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it (Jeremiah 17:6)? Many years later the great Apostle Paul would exclaim:

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)

Yes, this is the Good News; that while we are unable to save ourselves, our loving Creator has freely given us repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Name for all who will come. So, will you come?